The very first cellular telephone call was made in 1973 on the very first cell phone, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x. At that time, the cellular phone was just a phone, albeit portable, and its foreseeable future was thought to contain more of the same. But today, 40 years later, portable communications devices are ubiquitous, and almost every such device is much more than a phone.
People buy and sell from their devices, pay their bills and send written communications from their devices, and even entertain themselves via their devices. Indeed, given the Internet connectivity that has become common for such devices, the portable device is becoming the substantial equivalent of a desktop or laptop computer.
However, the ability of portable devices to handle sensitive personal data and financial information creates a security vulnerability for the user. In particular, allowing access by an unauthorized party to a user's portable communication device may create personal problems, financial loss, loss of privacy, and many other concerns. To counteract this vulnerability, many devices are configured to require some form of user authentication before allowing access.
Thus for example, password authentication, fingerprint authentication, and even iris authentication have become prevalent. Of these, password authentication is sometimes seen as the least convenient, since it requires the user to remember a password and the user must then take the time to enter the password. Similarly, fingerprint authentication, though less intrusive, sometimes suffers from false readings, which are primarily negative readings.
Iris authentication is both accurate and nonintrusive, but does require ample illumination in order to form an iris image for comparison. To meet this need, iris authenticated devices are often provided with a dedicated IR (infrared) LED (light emitting diode) which is used to illuminate the user's iris for authentication. However, given the range of distances and angles at which a user can hold the device, such dedicated IR LEDs tend to be bulky and power hungry, and may suffer output instability due to heating.
While the present disclosure is directed to a system that can eliminate some of the shortcomings noted in this Background section, it should be appreciated that any such benefit is neither a limitation on the scope of the disclosed principles nor of the attached claims, except to the extent expressly noted in the claims. Additionally, the discussion of technology in this Background section is reflective of inventors' own observations, considerations, and thoughts, and is in no way intended to accurately catalog or comprehensively summarize the prior art. As such, the inventors expressly disclaim this section as admitted or assumed prior art as to the discussed details. Moreover, the identification herein of a desirable course of action comprises the inventors' own observations and ideas, and should not be assumed to indicate an art-recognized desirability.